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Obama Greets Troops On Surprise Afghanistan Trip
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This week, President Obama met with VA Secretary Eric Shinseki over reports of treatment delays. "If these allegations prove to be true, it is dishonorable, it is disgraceful and I will not tolerate it," said Obama after the meeting. We should absolutely hold accountable those responsible for the recent suffering and deaths of America's veterans. But let's not stop with the VA. One reason the system is so overwhelmed is because of the tens of thousands injured in Iraq, an unnecessary war, which also claimed over 4,400 soldiers' lives. In 2003, Shinseki, then serving as Army chief of staff, testified it would take "several hundred thousand soldiers" to occupy Iraq. For speaking the truth about the recklessness and hubris behind the invasion, he was pushed aside by Bush, Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz. So yes, there should be a price to pay for the unnecessary deaths of U.S. veterans -- but when will there be a price to pay for all those who were killed or are still suffering because of an unnecessary and immoral war?
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Love your self, love your work, love the people around you. Dare to love those who are different from you, no matter where they're from, what they look like, and who they love. Pursue this life of love with focus and passion and ambition and courage. Give it your all. And that will be your path to true success.
Arthur Gelb was a master builder, the Robert Moses of newspapering. His eyes danced when he told stories about dreaming up the multi-sectioned New York Times.
The existence of judicial review matters only when the courts hold a law unconstitutional. A central question in evaluating this element of our constitutional structure is whether courts have exercised this authority wisely.
Our need to redefine success is as urgent on the collective level as it is in our personal lives. Limiting our metrics of success to money and power and completely defining ourselves by our jobs creates a political class obsessed with short-term gain -- one that's not up to the types of long-term challenges we're now facing.
The wrong question is being asked. It is not, can faith exist with science? It is rather, can enchantment be restored in the age of enlightenment?
My extended family, all naturalized American citizens, are among the 17 million people in the U.S. living in mixed-status immigrant households where at least one person is undocumented. I'm the only one in my family who doesn't have the right papers to be in the U.S.
So I feel like stay-at-home moms have been keeping a big secret. I would almost call it a conspiracy. Why didn't anyone tell me it would be this hard?
For Republicans who believe that patriotism ends with lapel pins and cowboy costumes, it might be useful to consider some historical examples of true patriotism by a political party.
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The arts are not the whole solution for education in the 21st century. We need strong leadership, effective teachers and hard work on many fronts. But arts education gives our schools effective tools to reach and teach students.
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For so many people, Memorial Day is about the start of summer, family cookouts and trips to the beach. And while all those things celebrate the freedoms we all enjoy as Americans, for the families of our fallen troops Memorial Day is deeply personal.
Feminism is an endeavor to change something very old, widespread, and deeply rooted in many, perhaps most, cultures around the world, innumerable institutions, and most households on Earth -- and in our minds, where it all begins and ends.
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This is crazy stuff, and it makes it difficult if not impossible to have a reasonable discussion about the pros and cons of the Common Core.
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The military hammer the US government has been using against terrorist suspects for over 12 years has not succeeded in eliminating al-Qaeda; it has helped spawn a resurgence of terrorist groups across war-torn Middle East and now into Africa.
For decades, Congress has implemented policies that distort America's criminal justice system and tip the scales of justice in favor of punishment over rehabilitation. As a matter of civil rights and basic justice, our criminal justice system must change.
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Feminist activists are painting Marianne as though she were some conservative like Phyllis Schlafly. Marianne has never uttered a word -- privately or publicly -- against Roe vs. Wade. Marianne supports it 100%.
Recently, a somewhat obscure scientific journal rejected a paper. Somehow, that made the front page of the London Times and spawned a number of articles in the right-wing press. How in the world does a rejected manuscript warrant front-page media coverage? Here's how.
Ta-Nehisi Coates, a senior editor at The Atlantic magazine, thinks it's time for a bold step to change the way we talk and think about race in America. This week, I speak to Coates about his June cover story for the magazine, provocatively titled "The Case for Reparations."
"Foster care is not fun for anyone," says 24-year-old law student Amy Peters, who entered Nebraska's foster care system at age 12 and remained until she "aged out" at 19. Fortunately for Amy, she excelled in high school and was accepted at the University of Nebraska, and because she was attending college was eligible for housing, health care, and financial assistance until age 21 through Nebraska's Former Ward Program. Amy knows very well she was one of the lucky ones.
Yesterday, Republican Speaker John Boehner admitted that "there's not that big a difference" between the Tea Party and the GOP. The results of last night's primaries are just the latest confirmation that this is true. The civil war in the Republican Party is over and the Tea Party has won.
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The major news of the announcement was the shock exclusion of Landon Donovan, the team's all-time leader in goals and assists. But the move was not the only surprise in the final round of roster cuts, which, considered together, paint a puzzling picture of the manager's decision-making.
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The president should act now -- he should not wait for additional authority before doing the right thing, the moral thing. The president should transfer a significant number of detainees out of Guantanamo.
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Voices across the country are raising concerns about the new Common Core State Standards. But if you listen carefully to the conversations, the main concern is not about the standards, themselves, but about the consequences of high-stakes tests attached to the standards. And those concerns are well-placed.
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Educational inequality isn't a notion from the past; it is happening right now all across this nation. And the facts simply don't lie.
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Conversations about trigger warnings seem more and more like superficial proxies for ones about deeper problems on campuses regarding diversity, equity, the corporatization of education, and, the dreaded word, privilege.
A coalition of black pastors filed an amicus brief in Michigan's gay marriage trial last Wednesday. The group hope to defeat efforts to make same-sex marriage legal in Michigan and in the brief they particularly rejected comparisons between the gay civil rights movement and the struggle for African Americans in this country.
C.M. Tholens
Over 20 years ago, a lost recording of J.R.R. Tolkien was discovered in a basement in Rotterdam, but the man who found it kept this important reel-to-reel tape hidden away. Until recently, only he had heard the recording.
We've pulled together five of the most-watched TED talks from this year as voted by you, our loyal TEDWeekends audience. On the surface, they seem so different. But each speaker is an outsider spreading a common idea -- the best way to find courage in this world is to embrace your own, unique voice.
Despite the clear efforts to address an epidemic, A.J. Delgado is just the latest in a line of conservative writers arguing there isn't a campus rape problem.
Unfortunately, they're wrong.
This system of destruction on a planetary scale, facilitated by most of the ruling and corporate elites on the planet, is becoming (to bring into play another category not usually used in connection with climate change) the ultimate "crime against humanity" and, in fact, against most living things. It is becoming a "terracide."
Did it really bother this man that much that we were touching legs on the train? Was it the audacity of this "fat b*tch" to think she could fit in the space? Or was it that she felt she had the right to sit down when clearly, a little standing could do her some good?
